About Me

When my wife and I bought our first home, we realized that it might be nice to switch over to cell phones instead of having a home line. Unfortunately, we quickly discovered that without a home phone, babysitters wouldn't have a way to call us or emergency lines if something were to happen. Because we go on regular date nights, we decided that it was probably time to start shopping around for a new phone. Unfortunately, we weren't prepared for what we would find at the store. We quickly discovered features that we didn't know existed, and we were confused. My blog breaks down different features you might find in a home phone, so that you can make the best choice for your family.

If you use a wireless router within your business, you need to have your router set-up correctly so you have a strong enough signal to support a Wi-Fi run phone system for your business.

Find Out What Your Speed Really Is

The first thing that you need to do before you make any adjustments to your router is to find out what speed you are really getting, not the speed that your internet company is telling you that you are getting.

To do this, you need to run a speed test. Just type "speed test" into your browser and a few different free speed testing sites should come up. It may take a little less than a minute to run a speed test, and it will tell you what your upload and download speeds are.

Trying running tests during different times of the day to see if the speeds you get are consistent throughout the day or if they vary. Also, make sure that you have been connected to your internet for a few minutes in order to get the most accurate results.

This will provide you with a benchmark of where your speed is at now and will let you see if the changes you make to your router actually improve your overall internet speed.

Adjust the Channel

Your wireless router is set on a channel. That is the channel that your internet signal is being broadcast at. Oftentimes, many internet providers will set everyone in the same area on the same channel. Although this may help establish more consistent installation procedures on their end, it can cause your devices to compete against other nearby devices for the same internet signal.

You can prevent this competition by changing the channel that you are using. Try different channels and then test your internet signal. Test out different channels, between the numbers 1 and 12, until you find the signal that gives you the best speed test. Often, changing the channel that your wireless signal is on will reduce the competition and help speed up your internet speeds.

Set Up A Password

Next, make sure that your wireless network is secure. When your wireless network is secure, it will require the use of a password. This will help keep your neighbors and others nearby from using your signal. When too many devices are using your signal or demanding high outputs from your router, your internet speed will drop in order to respond to all the different requests that it is getting at the same time. Routers are designed to provide everyone who wants to use them some internet speed instead of prioritizing any one device over another.

Making your router secure and adding a password is an easy way to boost your internet speed and kick off people who are stealing your internet signal for their own purposes.

If you need assistance setting up your router so it can support your Wi-Fi based phone system, a phone and internet provider, like Spectracom Group, should be able to assist you with setting up your internet correctly to support VoIP phone service.